


A Few Days in the Life

by unfolded73



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Ten II/Rose implied, Ten/River but only slightly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2013-12-06
Packaged: 2018-01-03 16:43:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1072798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unfolded73/pseuds/unfolded73
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few glimpses into the life of the Doctor, on his own after Journey's End</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Few Days in the Life

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published 17 October 2008. What I said at the time: Trying to get over my estrangement from canon!Ten, so I wrote this: little isolated glimpses into what his life might be like in the months after the events of "Journey's End." It's not all angst; there's some funny too. I suppose you could argue that there's a bit of Ten/River in this fic, but if you hate that pairing, you can probably read this without your eyes bleeding. (All written before we knew River's story, of course.)

The Doctor swallowed his fifth shot of the bluish liquid. "You really want to fold."

The burly man across the table from him swayed in his seat, blinking blearily at his cards while the Doctor gestured for their glasses to be refilled. Two heads dipped back as the two small glasses were emptied again. With a large belch, the man pushed the rest of his credits into the pile. "I call."

The Doctor sighed, shaking his head. "You didn't want to do that." He fanned his cards face-up on the table. "I've got a straight. Which beats your trip sevens," he added, before seeing his opponent's hand. Some onlookers cheered, but more of them grumbled. Money began to change hands among those who had wagered on the outcome of the game.

"How did you know what I have?" the drunk card player asked, squinting at the Doctor and lurching forward. "You cheat?"

The Doctor sighed patiently. "No, I just happen to have a very, very good memory." He stood up and began pocketing his winnings, and it was evident to anyone that he was half the weight of his opponent, and that was being generous. He did not sway. "Good game."

The man made a grab for him as the Doctor passed, but he overbalanced and crashed to the floor. Leaving the bar, the Doctor made his way back to the TARDIS. "Never engage a Time Lord in a drinking contest, especially not when cards are involved." he said. There was no one there to hear him.

 

***

 

Martha stared at him, her mouth slightly ajar. "When you called about Donna a while back, I just assumed …"

The Doctor frowned. "What? That we were just travelling together on the TARDIS, like three peas in a pod?"

"I don't know, but it never even occurred to me that Rose wasn't with you."

He glanced around the coffee shop, his knee bouncing. "Well, she isn't. I'm on my own, free as a bird." His levity sounded false, even to him.

Martha took a sip of her coffee and set the cup down with a clang. "I don't know whether to give you comforting pats on the back or smack you in the head."

" _What?_ " The Doctor edged back slightly from the table, in case she decided on the latter. 

"It's just … you never stopped loving her. I, of all people, should know that. So how could you just leave her? Not just leave her, but send her off somewhere so that you'd be guaranteed to never see her again?"

"I shouldn't even be talking to you about this."

Martha snorted. "I'm over you, you know."

"I don't mean that. I don't … do _this_."

"Do what?"

The Doctor made a face. "Talk about my _feelings_."

"So? Time you started."

He sighed heavily. "Her _family_ is in that parallel world. Her mum, the man she's come to see as her dad, her little brother…"

"You sure it wasn't that you wanted to exile your double so that you didn't have to look yourself in the eye?"

"No! What? No, that's not it."

Martha rolled her eyes. "Whatever. All I'm saying is, a psychologist could write a doctoral thesis on you." She took another sip of her coffee. "And that was what she chose? To be with him instead of you?"

He dragged a hand through his hair in frustration. "She would have. Eventually, she would have. He's going to grow old with her. He can give her what I can't."

"Ah, I see." Martha looked at him with pity, and inside he writhed under her gaze. "You wanted to rip off the plaster."

"What are you talking about?"

"You'd rather never see her again than have to watch her be in love with another man. Another man who is you. Like I said: psychologist, thesis."

"You know, Martha, if I wanted abuse, I'd be sitting here with Jack. Or your mother."

"I'm sorry." She reached over and took his hand. "I really am sorry. You've lost … it's hard for me to even conceive of, how much you've lost. It’s not fair."

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you that life isn't fair." He dropped her hand and stood up, summoning the overly cheerful affect that was his almost-constant cover. "Well, it was good to catch up with you, Martha. I should be going, but we'll see each other again before too much longer, I suppose."

She sighed. "I'd better be seeing you soon. My wedding's in four weeks, remember? And you're going to be there."

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "Do I have to?"

"Yes. You've got a time machine, so there are no excuses. Be there, or I will hunt you down, no matter where or when you are, and give you that smack." Martha stood up and hugged him. "Please take care of yourself."

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. "I always do."

Martha pulled back and looked him in the eye. "I wish that were true."

 

***

 

He met a woman on Earth in 2009 named Julia.

He almost never chose to go to America, so when the TARDIS ended up in Iowa unexpectedly, he figured that there had to be a good reason. It happened the way it so often has: she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe the right place at the right time. She was a cubicle drone at a gas company in Des Moines, but was clearly much more when her cool head and quick thinking helped save the world from an invasion of hostile aliens who powered their ships with corn.

" _You're_ an alien," she said flatly, after the invaders were vanquished.

"Yeah."

"And is your life always like this?" she asked.

 _Not all the time_ , he started to say, then flinched at the memory of a snowy street in Chiswick at Christmas. "Yeah." He exhaled audibly. "I don't suppose you want to …" He gestured at the blue box behind him.

Her eyebrows went up. "Wanna what?"

"Travel with me. Anywhere you want to go in the whole universe."

She seemed to think about it, but shook her head. "No. I mean … no."

"Okay." He shrugged, then forced himself to smile. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Julia Franklin."

Her handshake was firm. "You too, Doctor."

He stepped into the TARDIS and went over to the console, starting the dematerialization. He didn't go back to remind her that it also travelled in time.

 

***

 

The Doctor scuffed one of his trainers on the dirty floor of the bunker. Behind him, ragged soldiers, gaunt from too many months with not nearly enough food, whispered angrily.

"Please," the small, greasy man begged. "Have mercy."

"Did you have mercy on the people of this moon?" the Doctor asked, his voice steely. "Did you have mercy when you took their daughters and sold them into slavery?"

"But … sir, I had to. The occupation forces …"

"These people fought against the occupation forces!" he shouted, gesturing to the men and women behind him. "Many of them _gave their lives_ in that fight. You just collaborated with the occupiers." 

The man started to weep, and he wiped ineffectually at his nose with the back of a filthy hand. "I'm sorry. Please, I'm begging you."

"Did you listen the pleading of the girls you took, some of them barely out of childhood?"

"I didn't know—"

"You knew." The Doctor's jaw was clenched. He turned to one of the soldiers behind him. "You can take him."

"No, you can't! You don't know what they'll do to me. They said you were merciful!"

The Doctor turned to leave. "Yeah, well, consider me officially out of mercy."

 

*** 

 

The last dart hit the centre of the bullseye with a satisfying thunk. The Doctor sauntered over and pulled his darts from the board, returning to where Jack was scowling at him. 

"You need to warn me when you challenge me to a game I have no hope of winning," Jack said, taking a long drag off his pint. 

The Doctor smiled a wide grin at him with lots of teeth. "If I'd warned you, you wouldn't have played."

Jack lined up behind the line and eyed the board, his first dart raised. "So what brings you to Cardiff?"

"Oh, you know, refuelling."

"Really? Because you refuelled three months ago. Don't remember you having to do it so frequently." He let go of each dart in quick succession. He had the skill of a man who had practiced for long hours. What he did not have was the superior hand-eye coordination of a Time Lord.

"I've been a lot of places in the last three months. A lot of times. Takes it out of the TARDIS."

Jack was silent as the Doctor positioned himself to throw. "Sure you weren't just lonely?" Jack asked, then grinned smugly as the Doctor's dart missed its mark.

"I don't get lonely."

"Yeah. Right." Jack crossed his arms over his chest. "You need someone."

Expecting denial, Jack was surprised when all he got was agreement. "I know I do."

"Well?"

"Well, it's not like I can put an advert in the paper, can I? I have to stumble across the right sort of person. And then, he or she has to say yes." He drank from his own pint.

"Stay around here for a while, then. I'll help you. I'll be your wingman," Jack said, throwing his darts.

"I'm not trying to find a date, Jack, I'm trying to find a companion."

"There's a difference?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response."

"You know, I'm not entirely joking. There's nothing stopping you from falling in love with someone else."

"There _is_ something stopping me, and I don't think I have to tell _you_ , of all people, what that is."

"So you're going to outlive them, so what? _Carpe diem_."

"It's not that simple," the Doctor said, taking Jack's place in front of the dart board.

"It _is_ that simple." Finishing his pint, Jack signalled to the barman. "Fine, if that's the way you feel about it, your only recourse is to start a torrid love affair with me."

This time the Doctor's darts flew true, hitting exactly where they were intended. The Doctor smirked. "Dream on, Jack."

 

***

 

When he saw River Song, he wasn't even that surprised. It was, after all, inevitable. She was young, a student, and it was her turn not to know him.

"I hate the 51st century," he grumbled, and she laughed.

"What, are you a historian? Wishing you lived in the past?"

"Something like that." He didn't meet her eyes.

"So tell me the truth," she said, glancing down at the crowd below in the streets from where she was crouched next to him. "This is more than just a student protest, isn't it? There's something big going on here, yes?"

"If you call a plot to overthrow the government big, then yes, it's big."

"And are you here to help them or stop them?"

"I'm here to make sure that millions don't die."

She rolled her eyes, apparently unimpressed. "That's just hyperbole."

"I assure you, it's not."

When it was all over, she looked at him with something like admiration, and something like … well, it was best not to dwell on that.

"You're amazing," she said, and then she was kissing him. The Doctor pushed her away, although perhaps not as quickly as he could have, if he was honest.

"How old are you?" he asked, his voice rising in pitch.

"Nineteen."

"Of course you are." If he didn't consider himself above such things, he might start to worry about his proclivities toward nineteen-year-olds. "I'm too old for you," he said firmly.

She smirked at him, and it was like he was suddenly back in the Library, with a much older, wiser version of this woman. "I'd say you're just right for me." 

He laughed in spite of himself at her clumsy attempt at seduction. "Maybe next time. I've got to go," he said as he turned and walked away.

"So there'll be a next time?" she called after him.

"I think you can probably count on it," he called back.

 

***

 

It was Donna, and he felt a little bit like crawling out of his skin.

He'd just stopped for milk and eggs, a completely uneventful stopover before heading off on the next journey, and here he was in a Tesco's, lurking behind a ginger-haired woman who was jabbering on her mobile as she shopped. It wasn't difficult to listen in while keeping a safe distance; her voice could carry. He could have probably heard her from two aisles away.

"I know! But I couldn't keep temping forever, could I? D'you see me when I'm fifty, making copies in some dingy office? No way." She paused to pick out breakfast cereal while the person on the other end of the call spoke. "No, but Veena, listen! It was something my granddad said. He said, he'd always thought I was cut out for something more, something greater. And Granddad's always saying stuff like that, so it wasn't just that, it was the _way_ he said it. Like it was the most important thing in the world. And then Mum, and you know how my mum is, but she _agreed_ with him! I know!"

The Doctor hid his smile, pretending to be fascinated with all the flavours of instant oatmeal available.

"Seriously!" Donna continued. "So I quit, and at first I thought, what am I doing, this is mad, how am I going to make any money? But then, I was walking down the street, and this advert for Amnesty International caught my eye, right? So I went home, and I went on their web site, and they have an opening for the assistant to this Advocacy Director. And at first I was thinking, who am I, I'm nobody, they won't want me to do this job. But I don't know, some voice in the back of my head told me to go for it." She laughed after a moment. "Well, I may be going mad, but if that's the case, bring it on, I'm lovin' it!"

Donna moved to the next aisle, and the Doctor followed after a little while, still keeping relatively far away. "I did! And do you know what I found out today? I got the job!" She cackled with laughter. "I know, it's wizard! But here's the thing, Veena. I'm going to Africa for six months." She threw a package of pasta into her cart. "Yes, I said Africa. Six months, then back here, then maybe somewhere else completely different after that! It's like, I suddenly feel like, _this_ is what I'm meant to be doing, you know? Travelling, and seeing new places, and at the same time helping people. It just … it feels right, somehow."

For the first time, the Doctor allowed himself to really look at her, smiling her bright smile as she juggled between the phone and pushing her cart. He couldn't help but smile himself, his mouth open in wonder. When she looked up and caught his eye, he quickly averted his glance and moved to another part of the store. 

Later, letting himself into the TARDIS, he didn't bother to suppress the joyous laugh that bubbled out. And perhaps there was no one to see his mad dance around the console as he initiated the next trip to parts unknown, but for the first time, he genuinely looked forward to when there would be.


End file.
